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2009-01-12 12:05:23
38 votes, rating 4
38 votes, rating 4
Dwarf Playbook
This team is playing in Blackbox and have been created to see how I would do with the feared dwarfs, compared to my preferred tabletop team - the orcs.
My first goal is to play 10 matches just to get a feeling of how the dwarfs play and develop. Well after 10 games I have a good bunch of players with Guard and have lost 3 troll slayers. And bought new replacements.
Initially I planned to get some Guard players, in the form of blitzers. I reckoned they would have an easier time scoring and hence making SPP than any of the other players with access to strength skills. That didn't quite work out as planned. The blitzers both have Guard now, but they were much harder to skill up than I planned for them to be. And all the while some of the longbeards got some MVP's and inflicted some casualties, so they actually managed to get SPP by themselves. The trolls slayers also have gotten SPP somehow and in the 10th to 20th game bracket they got Guard too.
I have been told dwarfs make their best offense when caging, but I have felt like I was under constant attack when playing against fast teams such as dark elves, as I couldn't quite protect the ball carrier fast enough. One solution to getting him protected is to form a slow cage - having blitzers and trolls slayers behind the LOS make that sort of function. But not as well as I would like to.
In a few fights I have had good succes with swarming forward and engage the other team in a slaughterfest. With guard sprinkled around it has been hard for the otehr team to just throw my dwarfs back.
When the opposing team gets keep blocking and the dwarfs stand up and don't hit much back I see my team slowly but surely get carried off the pitch. So I have to be better at making blocks. Some teams rely on high strength or assists at the right places to make 2D blocks without Block skill. Since dwarfs have block all over the place and plenty of re-rolls they have to do more 1D blocks. With the troll slayer around he can sometimes be the one that at least push back high strength opponents who'll protect the end of a line. This can open up for several 2D blocks.
Thoughts on Using Positionals
During a recent match against a chaos team I thought about using my players differently. Well it started some time earlier when I started out by facing three orcs teams - tie up their blitzers with longbeards and avoid going head to head with black orcs. That actually worked quite well. But now I am getting sidetracked...
Trolls slayers: I will try to use the slayers for what they are good at, hitting ST4+ players which the rest of the team has a hard time handling. That's it. As I can only blitz once per turn the slayers should be used with precausion - so far they seem to spend more time stunned than blocking or even assisting. I should not be afraid to do 1D block dice with them, especially against opponents without Block. That and I need to protect teh slayers better, there is a reason those are being killed more than any other type of players on the team..
Also slayers are what set dwarf and chaos dwarf teams apart.
Longbeards: My longbeards need to hold up opposing players. After being knocked down the longbeards can stand back up and mark any important nearby player.
Again I will compare to the chaos dwarf team - on this team they are fodder linemen, and great at it. While on the other hand chaos dwarf blockers are an important part of the offense as they are the only ones with Block.
Runners: These guys have two roles. On offense they grab the ball and run with it, protected by the rest of the team. Then they can either score themselves or hand-off the ball to whom might the the SPP, if such a luxury can be afforded. On the defense the guys have the speed to reach enemy ball carriers running past the dwarf line. So make sure they are well placed to go and put a tackle zone or blitz on the opponents.
Blitzers: Let the longbeards take care of basic tackling and marking. The blitzers make use of their higher movement and decent agility to be better positioned linemen. Being able to stand up and move 2 squares gives the dwarf team some sort of mobility. Make use of the blitzers heavy armour.
As of game 18 I have a healthy team of 13 players with no injuries, but more importantly every blitzer, slayer and longbeard have guard. Coach luigi gave the tip of putting every player in a line, giving ST5 over the entire line. With all the available guard players that should be an option now.
Thanks for the interest.
My first goal is to play 10 matches just to get a feeling of how the dwarfs play and develop. Well after 10 games I have a good bunch of players with Guard and have lost 3 troll slayers. And bought new replacements.
Initially I planned to get some Guard players, in the form of blitzers. I reckoned they would have an easier time scoring and hence making SPP than any of the other players with access to strength skills. That didn't quite work out as planned. The blitzers both have Guard now, but they were much harder to skill up than I planned for them to be. And all the while some of the longbeards got some MVP's and inflicted some casualties, so they actually managed to get SPP by themselves. The trolls slayers also have gotten SPP somehow and in the 10th to 20th game bracket they got Guard too.
I have been told dwarfs make their best offense when caging, but I have felt like I was under constant attack when playing against fast teams such as dark elves, as I couldn't quite protect the ball carrier fast enough. One solution to getting him protected is to form a slow cage - having blitzers and trolls slayers behind the LOS make that sort of function. But not as well as I would like to.
In a few fights I have had good succes with swarming forward and engage the other team in a slaughterfest. With guard sprinkled around it has been hard for the otehr team to just throw my dwarfs back.
When the opposing team gets keep blocking and the dwarfs stand up and don't hit much back I see my team slowly but surely get carried off the pitch. So I have to be better at making blocks. Some teams rely on high strength or assists at the right places to make 2D blocks without Block skill. Since dwarfs have block all over the place and plenty of re-rolls they have to do more 1D blocks. With the troll slayer around he can sometimes be the one that at least push back high strength opponents who'll protect the end of a line. This can open up for several 2D blocks.
Thoughts on Using Positionals
During a recent match against a chaos team I thought about using my players differently. Well it started some time earlier when I started out by facing three orcs teams - tie up their blitzers with longbeards and avoid going head to head with black orcs. That actually worked quite well. But now I am getting sidetracked...
Trolls slayers: I will try to use the slayers for what they are good at, hitting ST4+ players which the rest of the team has a hard time handling. That's it. As I can only blitz once per turn the slayers should be used with precausion - so far they seem to spend more time stunned than blocking or even assisting. I should not be afraid to do 1D block dice with them, especially against opponents without Block. That and I need to protect teh slayers better, there is a reason those are being killed more than any other type of players on the team..
Also slayers are what set dwarf and chaos dwarf teams apart.
Longbeards: My longbeards need to hold up opposing players. After being knocked down the longbeards can stand back up and mark any important nearby player.
Again I will compare to the chaos dwarf team - on this team they are fodder linemen, and great at it. While on the other hand chaos dwarf blockers are an important part of the offense as they are the only ones with Block.
Runners: These guys have two roles. On offense they grab the ball and run with it, protected by the rest of the team. Then they can either score themselves or hand-off the ball to whom might the the SPP, if such a luxury can be afforded. On the defense the guys have the speed to reach enemy ball carriers running past the dwarf line. So make sure they are well placed to go and put a tackle zone or blitz on the opponents.
Blitzers: Let the longbeards take care of basic tackling and marking. The blitzers make use of their higher movement and decent agility to be better positioned linemen. Being able to stand up and move 2 squares gives the dwarf team some sort of mobility. Make use of the blitzers heavy armour.
As of game 18 I have a healthy team of 13 players with no injuries, but more importantly every blitzer, slayer and longbeard have guard. Coach luigi gave the tip of putting every player in a line, giving ST5 over the entire line. With all the available guard players that should be an option now.
Thanks for the interest.
Comments
Posted by BiggieB on 2009-01-12 13:21:38
the dwarf playbook is very simple:
On defence: form Phalanx, advance 1 step at the time
On offence: form Phalanx, advance 1 step at the time
On defence: form Phalanx, advance 1 step at the time
On offence: form Phalanx, advance 1 step at the time
Posted by treborius on 2009-01-12 13:22:27
give 1 of your Runners Tackle - I've found it invaluable on defense - while a lot of coaches seem to say that there's enough tackle on Dwarfs already, I think it's invaluable for the only fast-moving players (MA=6) to have Tackle (after Block) - that way you can afford to keep only 1 Runner back on Defense as long as you can get 1 assist for a 2d-Blitz on any Catcher, Gutter-Runner, etc. that breaks throug your lines...
...of course a lot of agile teams break through with more than just 1 player, but then you'll even be happier about a MA=6, Tackle - player ;)
I've also found it hard to coach Dwarf when facing a lot of Orcs - Orcs are tougher (usually 10 or even 11 players with AV9 and 1 regeneration vs. 5 or 6 x AV9 + Thick-Skull), quite a bit stronger (4xST=4 + 1xST=5), quite a bit faster (4 x MA=6 vs. 2 x MA=6 and MA=5 on all Linemen) and actually come with out-of-the-box passing-skills.
When they stacked up a lot of Block (on BoBs and Linemen) and Guard / MB / etc. (on Blitzers) they're really hard to handle, so sometimes when 1 of my Linemen is holding up a BoB, I even start doing -2d Blocks towards the end of my turn (esp. vs. non-Block-BoBs) - quite regularly I manage to push them back into another Longbeard's tackle-zone and can use the blocking Longbeard elsewhere on next turn.
...of course a lot of agile teams break through with more than just 1 player, but then you'll even be happier about a MA=6, Tackle - player ;)
I've also found it hard to coach Dwarf when facing a lot of Orcs - Orcs are tougher (usually 10 or even 11 players with AV9 and 1 regeneration vs. 5 or 6 x AV9 + Thick-Skull), quite a bit stronger (4xST=4 + 1xST=5), quite a bit faster (4 x MA=6 vs. 2 x MA=6 and MA=5 on all Linemen) and actually come with out-of-the-box passing-skills.
When they stacked up a lot of Block (on BoBs and Linemen) and Guard / MB / etc. (on Blitzers) they're really hard to handle, so sometimes when 1 of my Linemen is holding up a BoB, I even start doing -2d Blocks towards the end of my turn (esp. vs. non-Block-BoBs) - quite regularly I manage to push them back into another Longbeard's tackle-zone and can use the blocking Longbeard elsewhere on next turn.
Posted by Rijssiej on 2009-01-12 13:58:50
treborius: How can you field a full dwarf team with only 5 or 6 x AV9?
Posted by treborius on 2009-01-12 14:18:22
sorry, last Dwarf games is a while back - forgot Blitzers had AV9, as well...
...of course it's supposed to read: 7 or 8 x AV9 ;-)
...thx, Rijssiej
...of course it's supposed to read: 7 or 8 x AV9 ;-)
...thx, Rijssiej
Posted by westerner on 2009-01-12 16:01:00
Thoughts on [B] Dorfs:
-I like Mighty Blow before Guard on slayers. They're your hitters and get 2 shots to knock down an opponent. Whereas Guard encourages them to get hit which isn't their strength.
-Discard some rerolls. Dorfs don't need 6 and they cost 4TS each.
-Get a DP.
-Cage as (not more than) needed to keep the ball safe. Sometimes it means a full X-formation cage, sometimes it means comitting more forces to the blockwar.
-Positioning of Guards is key to winning the blockwar. Generally try to get your Guards covering as many enemy players as you can. Whereas the non-Guards should stay on the outside of formations.
-I like Mighty Blow before Guard on slayers. They're your hitters and get 2 shots to knock down an opponent. Whereas Guard encourages them to get hit which isn't their strength.
-Discard some rerolls. Dorfs don't need 6 and they cost 4TS each.
-Get a DP.
-Cage as (not more than) needed to keep the ball safe. Sometimes it means a full X-formation cage, sometimes it means comitting more forces to the blockwar.
-Positioning of Guards is key to winning the blockwar. Generally try to get your Guards covering as many enemy players as you can. Whereas the non-Guards should stay on the outside of formations.
Posted by screech on 2009-01-12 23:18:26
2 things I can add off the top of my head
1) On defense never overcommit all your players to 1 side, because a good coach will take advantage of your lack of speed and switch sides leaving you in the dust.
2) Strip ball on runers is great. I usually get it as their second normal skill (after block of course). It allows you to keep a runner back as a safety, with 66% chance of popping the ball free on a 1d block.
1) On defense never overcommit all your players to 1 side, because a good coach will take advantage of your lack of speed and switch sides leaving you in the dust.
2) Strip ball on runers is great. I usually get it as their second normal skill (after block of course). It allows you to keep a runner back as a safety, with 66% chance of popping the ball free on a 1d block.
Posted by Catalyst32 on 2009-01-13 03:52:01
Get STAND FIRM on all the Longbeards you can on DOUBLES rolls.
AND Look up some OLD STYLE American Football formations and plays. I suggest the "T-Formation" and the "Single Wing".
They won't translate EXACTLY into Blood Bowl. But that can educate you on some BASIC blocking (read HOLE OPENING) techniques.
From turn to turn you can advance while shifting into and out of these 2 basic formations. "T-Formation" looks alot like standard CAGING. And the "Single Wing" is a look you might have during a lateral move across the pitch.
Another Offense to consider looking at is the "Wishbone".
It also looks similar to standard CAGING.
AND Look up some OLD STYLE American Football formations and plays. I suggest the "T-Formation" and the "Single Wing".
They won't translate EXACTLY into Blood Bowl. But that can educate you on some BASIC blocking (read HOLE OPENING) techniques.
From turn to turn you can advance while shifting into and out of these 2 basic formations. "T-Formation" looks alot like standard CAGING. And the "Single Wing" is a look you might have during a lateral move across the pitch.
Another Offense to consider looking at is the "Wishbone".
It also looks similar to standard CAGING.
Posted by westerner on 2009-01-13 16:05:37
Aye on Stand Firm. SF + Guard = Goodness. Even a Longbeard can Dodge with SF.